A WOMAN has spoken of the “shocking” moment she was fined £150 after feeding a pigeon a few tortilla wraps.Sam Elkin, 23, from Southport, was in Manchester with her partner to celebrate her birthday on March 9 when she was fined for “littering” in the city’s Piccadilly Gardens, the BBC reported.Sam told BBC Manchester that she was sitting with her partner and eating a McDonald’s wrap. She tore off a piece and placed it on the ground for an approaching pigeon, and was almost immediately handed a £150 fine by a council enforcement officer.“The food was literally gone – the pigeons ate it and left – before they even really got close to us,” Sam said. “It was shocking. I felt so angry.”Sam said she did not know it was a crime when she fed the pigeon downtown on Monday.
Sam said the incident on Monday left her feeling “very vulnerable”.“Honestly it was very scary, because I’m short and the person who approached me was 6ft 10 – and my partner is in a wheelchair, so I felt very vulnerable in that moment,” she said.She said she “didn’t think twice” about tearing off part of the wrapping for the bird, because she didn’t know that was a crime.“I tried to explain to the officer that this was our first time properly out in the city, and that I had no idea that feeding a bird was a crime,” Sam said.
“I didn’t think twice about it because I was always feeding birds in Southport.”Sam also said she did not think a fine was appropriate because by the time the officer approached them, the offending “garbage” had disappeared, having been eaten by pigeons.“The tortilla was already gone,” she said. “I pointed at him and said, ‘Look at the floor, this discarded food you’re talking about is long gone.’”Sam said when she gave the officer her ID, she didn’t know she had been issued a fine.“I thought he said he was just going to give us a warning and then he asked for my ID and obviously I handed it over, without thinking, but once he had my details it was over – and it was a £150 fine.”Sam said she and her partner, who is disabled, were living on a “scratch” budget after recently moving to a new home in Huddersfield.“We only recently moved – and still haven’t gotten our furniture – to be hit with a fine like this, especially for something as simple as feeding a bird…” she said.“I mean there are bigger things going on in the world.”
